For the first time in fifty years, a member of the Kennedy family yesterday decided not to impose a mandatory minimum sentence on a man accused of a drug crime. Caroline Kennedy and eleven other jurors voted to acquit Nelson Chatman of selling crack to an undercover officer, in a case echoing one of her father's lesser-known political efforts.

It's not exceptional that a figure as well-known as Kennedy should serve on a Manhattan jury. During voir dire for the trial (during which attorneys from both the defense and prosecution ask potential jurors questions to determine if they're suitable), Kennedy was asked the standard questions, affirming that she hadn't been convicted of a crime, though she did know "a few people" with drug problems. (The Daily News noted one omission: "When asked if she or any member of her family had been a victim of a crime, Kennedy did not publicly mention the assassinations of her father and her uncle, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.") Over the next week, Kennedy acted as juror number seven, ultimately joining the unanimous opinion to acquit Chatman. The New York Post reported on Kennedy's last contribution.

Kennedy, 55, also smiled, slightly and politely, as jurors were individually asked by a clerk, “Is that your verdict?”

“Yes,” Kennedy said when it was her turn.

Had Chatman been convicted of the crime, in which he was accused of selling four $5 rocks of crack to an undercover officer, he faced a minimum of six years in prison.

In that way, the not guilty verdict strongly echoes one of the lesser-known acts of her father, John F. Kennedy. In 1956, four years before he took office, Congress passed the Narcotics Control Act, which strengthened the penalties and mandatory sentences first mandated under 1951's Boggs Act. One author dubbed the Narcotics Control Act "the most punitive and repressive anti-narcotics legislation ever adopted by Congress."